For older (teens) kids, I would select a piece of classic literature or a classic (source document) history to read with them (either taking turns reading together or independently). Gather often to reconnect and share what you are both seeing in the text. Short written abstracts about the meaning of the text would help them clarify their understanding if you have the time.

If the kids are working from 9am to 9pm, you’re probably doing too much! Last week, Meredith and I were looking at the Vanderbilt University admissions requirements, and the high schooler must have 3 maths, 3 sciences, 4 Englishes, 3 social studies, 2 languages, and if I recall correctly, the rest is filler. That gives you plenty of room to tailor the content and accelerate if feasible while meeting their requirements. You could start Algebra in middle school if your child is ready and leave the last years of high school for special subjects of interest.

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As for how to start, I would probably take a few weeks to observe them so that I could assess where they stand in terms of mastering the trivium:

1. Are there any holes in their English language acquisition that need to be filled? (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc.) For instance, my kids know their basic English grammar, but I’ll bet if I asked them what a “gerund” was, they would pull a blank stare. But if I gave them a sentence with gerund that was mistakenly used, I’ll bet they’d catch it right away. So they have the usage down but not all the terms. So I might include a little extra work in this area. (I would not have them complete a full year Grammar workbook if they already know most of the material. Move on to things they don’t know.)

2. How are their critical thinking skills? Are they asking questions when they read? Can you have a discussion with them on current events or an assigned narrative and tell that they are thinking logically? Where are the gaps?

3. How are their communication skills, both oral and written? Have they learned how to write a cohesive, one-idea paragraph with a topic sentence then add stylistic interest? Are they organizing their ideas before they speak or write?

Okay, so you’ve got an idea of where you stand: one child is showing great critical thinking skills because his math homework is always perfect, but he doesn’t know how to punctuate a sentence. So with him, table the math for a few days while you work with him on punctuation.

The next child loves reading, so she is already writing complex sentences with style and great vocab, but her algebra is a struggle. Don’t eliminate the reading and writing for her because she loves it, but give her more time to spend on mastering her algebra concepts. Or maybe she needs to ask more questions and answer them about her literature.

If you’ve got a teen who has substantially mastered the 3 skills of the trivium then you can let him branch out into subjects of interest.

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I’ll be writing about all of this in more detail soon, so hang on, and I hope this helped.

diane

One day a good homeschool friend came over to visit, and I began to lament over how far behind I was in grading a huge stack of papers. She had already graduated one son, and she explained that NO ONE else was going to ever look at all the detail that I was collecting. She had created a pretty little notebook for her son to take to his college admissions interview, and the admissions officer never even looked at it! After all her hard work, all he cared about were her son’s persuasive interpersonal skills, confidence, test scores, and final (one page) transcript. She then went on to tell me that she had never had a representative of the state education department visit her home to ask for her evidence. She said she only keeps the most important work and throws out the rest.

Her words convicted me. That’s when I began to really question whether the method that I was following was really “classical” in the historical sense or not. Now I can say that the content we cover in our home is deep, but the environment is relaxed. Whew!